Temporary Home
by TheGirlOfManyObsessions
Summary: Life is adventure, a temporary stop for us until we reach our true home, wherever that may be. So that's why we must live for it. Light fluff, cliché moments, and implied SasuNaru. 3-shot
1. With a Smile Upon His Face

**Title: Temporary Home**

**Rating: T for language**

**Author: TGOMO (Anju)**

**I finally posted it! YES!! -shot-**

**Gah! Another song inspired story!? Yes. I love country music. So shut up. –smiles-**

**Okay, okay, so I haven't really come up with anything original yet, BUT I'M TRYING! Gosh. Anyhow, yeah, I just really love the song and, to me, it really fits with some of the characters in here (in a totally fluff-tastic sort of way). And since I'm going by the verses and trying to make the chapters as long as I can, this is going to be a 3-shot.**

**As for the implied SasuNaru… that was to be expected. You know me! –tard grin-**

**Summary: Life is adventure, a temporary stop for us until we reach our true home, wherever that may be. So that's why we must live for it. Light fluff, cliché emotions, and implied S/N.**

**Warnings: Light language, OOC-ness, some slightly religious themes, very light shonen-ai.**

**Ages: 13+**

**Disclaimer: Me, own Naruto? Pfft. No. If I did, Naruto would be on some sort of hentai channel with no evil censor bars. –shot-**

**Enjoy!**

**Beta: MonsterKeys**

* * *

_With a Smile Upon His Face_

"Ms. Sannin, would you mind stepping over here? I just need you to sign Naruto's adoption forms and you're free to go."

"Of course. Thank you."

The boy in question fiddled with the handle on his suitcase, watching the two women talk over the documents with bored, monotone eyes. The large breasted, blonde haired woman was to be his new adoptive mother. Naruto gave it three months, tops, before he returned.

Had he been any normal orphan, he would have been bouncing around in his seat, saying goodbye to all his friends and feeling excited to finally have a family. But in Naruto's case, he was much too used to being in this position to bother with all that.

Naruto was six years old, an orphan who had already been adopted and re-adopted by more families than he could count. Naruto's mother had passed away during child birth and when the boy was only three years of age his father, who had been on the police force, had died in the line of duty.

Since then Naruto had been tossed from foster family to foster family, and each time he came back the feeling of anguish dulled a little more. He'd given up on any hope that he could truly have a family, and his happy-ball-of-sunshine personality had been worn down to almost nothing.

They were all temporary anyway. Naruto smiled secretly before putting on another passive face.

"Thank you very much, Ms. Sannin." Naruto looked up to see the director of the Konoha Orphanage stuffing the papers into a folder before looking at him with that timeworn smile. "We're going to miss you so much Naruto."

Naruto put on the best grin he could muster, but he failed miserably and it just ended up looking like a forced grimace. The woman flinched slightly.

Suddenly, he felt a strong, yet gentle hand take his and he looked up to see the blonde woman looking down at him. Tsunade Sannin, was it?

"Alright, anything else you need?" she asked. Naruto shook his head. He had everything he needed and didn't have many friends to say goodbye to. He loved having friends, but he learned long ago that the other kids wouldn't be coming back after they were adopted. It was too painful to see them leave for good while he always came back. Plus, being the eldest orphan there made forming friendships a bit difficult.

"'Kay then, come on, kid. Let's get going," she clipped. Naruto looked up at her, confused, when she started to pull him from the building and out to the car. He took one last look at the building before walking towards the car.

Upon opening the backseat door, a few empty bottles of sake spilled out onto the pavement. Naruto stared at her with a worried look.

Tsunade stared at the rubbish and laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "Well, this doesn't give a good impression, does it?" She chuckled before scooping up the bottles and pushing them to the other side. "Sorry… This is awkward. But I promise; I don't drink while driving. I actually went out last night, and some friends of mine left their shit in my car."

Tsunade wasn't sure if he understood what she was talking about, but lying wasn't her cup of tea. The swearing was probably a bit overdoing it, though. But hey, she was nervous, and when she was nervous, she rambled.

Naruto, still a bit apprehensive, climbed into the back of the car and set his suitcase between his feet before closed the door. He slumped against it as watched the elder woman walk around the car, slide into the front seat and start the car before driving off.

The young boy glanced out the window as they drove through the city, watching all the people walking up and down the street. He watched as a mother walked down the street, her daughter trailing close behind, their hands clasped together and he sighed.

Tsunade glanced at the boy in the rearview mirror and sighed herself. _This kid looks like he would rather be anywhere else but here_. This worried her.

Living alone meant many things. You never have to clean pick up after yourself, unless you felt it necessary, you could eat whatever you wanted, when you wanted, in quantities you wanted, and you never had to sleep with the same person twice. That was what Tsunade's life was like. She was happily unmarried, meaning that she could go out whenever she chose, and drink when she pleased, let alone be able to down about eight bottles of sake in almost six minutes, thank you very much.

_Okay, so maybe I shouldn't be too proud of that accomplishment_.

But, about a week ago, she woke up and felt like something was missing. As cliché as it sounded, at almost forty two years old, she felt very unaccomplished. She had yet to have a child, or even a steady relationship of any kind whatsoever. Sure, she had flings every now and then but again, those were exactly that; flings, one-night-stands.

So one morning she had woken up feeling, dare she say it, lonely. She felt tired of waking up every morning to nothing but a bottle of alcohol and her pet pig, TonTon.

This is why she wanted to adopt. She refused to have a child with one of her flings; that would mean having them stick around. And besides; kids - she could handle. Babies on the other had were a very different story. She would never be able to handle changing a diaper. Ew.

And now she had known this kid for all of ten minutes and it already seemed like he wasn't going to be happy.

"Hey, kid – er, Naruto?"

The child looked up and Tsunade immediately winced when she realized she didn't know what to say to him.

"So, um… Tell me a little about yourself."

"…"

"Not much of talker, are ya'?"

More silence. Great, this was going along very smoothly.

For a moment Tsunade actually wondered if the child had fallen asleep, so when she looked back to check on him her eyes widened at the sight of light and silent tears run down his scared cheeks. If there was one thing the woman couldn't handle, it was a crying child .

"Hey, look kid, don't cry…" She said, unsure of what to do, "I… I just…"

"What's the point?"

These were the first words spoken by Naruto since they left the orphanage. Tsunade blinked before continuing the conversation.

"What? What do you mean?"

Naruto continued to stare out the window as he spoke. "I don't really see the point," He tried to make his voice sound uncaring, but it ended up coming out as quiet and pathetic, "this is just going to be just like all the other times."

"Other times?"

"You're just going to take me back again when you get tired of me, aren't you?"

Tsunade suddenly swerved the car a bit at the statement before getting back onto the road. Of all the things she was thinking he was upset about, that was the last thing she expected.

"Take you back? What the hell are you talking about?!"

Naruto sighed again, and Tsunade noticed his shoulders shake and more tears fell from his bright blue eyes. "It's happened before, and it's going to happen again and again until I'm grow'd up and I can live by myself."

Looking back at him, she felt her eyes soften. "You've been given a lot of grief over this, haven't you?" The blonde haired boy looked up, confusion evident in his eyes.

"What'cha mean?"

"I mean, this seems to be a normal thing for you, isn't it?"

Naruto looked down, and nodded slowly. "I've never had a real home before. Why should this be any different?"

She knew he didn't mean to, but everything that he said indicated low self esteem and lack of trust in adults. Tsunade was nervous as it was, and his sadness and negativity wasn't really helping any.

Silence took over the car for several minutes; the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Eventually it became suffocating and Tsunade had to end it.

"Look, kid. I… I know this going to be awkward for a while. Hell, this will be the first time having to take care of anything other than myself and my pet pig, TonTon." She smiled to herself when she saw the boy crack a small grin before it fell back into a frown. "But… but maybe we can work something out."

Tsunade met Naruto's eyes and she could've sworn she saw what could've been a dull spark of hope.

"So, how 'bout we try this again. Naruto, tell me a bit about yourself?"

The car ride lasted another hour and a half, and already it wasn't long enough. Naruto, whom at the beginning of the drive was closed in and quite, was now yelling and smiling. He laughed as he told a story about when he and a friend of his, Konohamaru, went to try to catch the Boogeyman in their closet.

Tsunade watched in amusement as he seemed opened up more and more as the story went on, eventually adding voice affects when necessary and flailing his arms around wildly.

"So then, we walked over to the closet and Konohama'u told me that he could hear him inside, breathing and stuff! So, since I was older, I walked in front of him to open the door first, and then…" Naruto used another one of his "dramatic pauses."

Smirking Tsunade asked, "And then what happened?"

"And then… I opened the door and… BAH! I'uka-sensei scared us from behind! We weren't supposed to be awake, but I'uka-sensei is nice and stuff! So he asked us what we were doing, and we told him 'We're looking for the Boogeyman! We heard him!' Then he laughed and said it was only the vents and pointed to the big metal box in the closet!"

Naruto's laughter filled the car and Tsunade relaxed at the sound.

They were now far out from the city, arriving closer to Naruto's new home. Of course, this would never be his real home. Naruto smiled at the thought.

Tsunade noticed the boy had gone quiet and when she looked back, she noticed that the boy had visibly relaxed and was smiling out the window. That comforted her thoughts and she was glad the tension from earlier had evaporated.

Soon, a small white farmhouse appeared in the distance. A few other houses were scattered close by, and Naruto discovered that a couple houses had stables or barns.

Tsunade gripped the wheel a bit tighter._ The moment of truth, _she thought. She glanced at the rearview mirror only to be caught in Naruto's soft gaze.

Taking a deep breath as they approached the small neighborhood, Tsunade asked "So… What'cha think? How do you like it?"

Naruto looked back between the approaching house and the woman in the front seat. Suddenly he looked up and said with a smile on his face, "This is my temporary home."

Tsunade felt confusion and rejection all rolled into one and it hurt. "W-What do you mean, Naruto? Don't you like it here?"

"I do, but it doesn't matter where I go. It will never be home; not my_ true_ home." He was still smiling.

"I still don't understand."

Naruto closed his eyes while his head remained pointed upwards. "This is just another stop on the way to where I'm supposed to go."

Tsunade watched him with a look of shock. She understood what he was talking about now; she was just amazed that a child his age could speak so deeply about a topic such as this.

"Naruto… Where did you learn to talk like talk that?"

"I'uka-sensei told me. He said that it doesn't matter where I am, as long as I know where I'm going. Cool, huh?" Naruto smiled a cheeky grin, lowered his head, and opened his eyes.

Staring at him for a few more seconds, Tsunade shook her head and smiled gently. "Yeah, it is cool, isn't it?"

Naruto smiled and nodded before looking back out the window, finally reaching the neighborhood.

Outside, Naruto saw two other children; one about his age, and the other about a few years older. A small smile tugged at Naruto's lips and giggled as he caught the eye of the younger raven haired boy.

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**FINALLY!!!**

**Are you happy now, Keys?! Are you?! **_Yeeeeess. Yes I am._**You better be, I stayed up 'till three trying to write this and slept most of my day away! (Though this isn't uncommon for me) **_Sure, keep blaming me._

**Seriously though, I'm just kidding. ^^; I probably would've done this anyway. :D **... _Or you can stop blaming me, whatever works best for you._

**Part 2 should be up soon, but my spring break is over so it might be getting up later than usual. I dunno. –shrugs-**

**Now remember kids; flames will be used for roasting marshmallows and reviews are my brain-food!**

**So review, yesh? 83**

**-TGOMO/Anju**

**P.S. RANDOM POLL! –points to profile- **_LOL I picked "__POST A FREAKING FANFIC INSTEAD OF THESE STUPID POLLS!__" _**I figured as much. XD –brick'd-**


	2. Our Place Here In This World

**Title: Temporary Home**

**Rating: T for language**

**Author: TGOMO**

**Hey, guys! I am SO sorry this update is so late! I kinda lost inspiration for this story for a while, but I recently had a chance to continue it in my creative writing class this year! (still late though) Only now am I uploading it though. ^^;**

**Summary: Life is adventure, a temporary stop for us until we reach our true home, wherever that may be. So that's why we must live for it. Light fluff, cliché emotions, and implied S/N.**

**Warnings: Light language, OOC-ness, some slightly religious themes, very light shonen-ai.**

**Ages: 13+**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters, except for Yukio; he is mine. Also the plot belongs to me.**

**Enjoy!**

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_Our Place Here In This World_

"I'm sorry, miss, but I'm going to have to say no."

Sakura Haruno felt her heart crash into her stomach as she watched the man across the desk drop her resume on the wood and push it back towards her.

"But," she started. "W-why? I don't understand."

The heavy man looked at her with deep, remorseful grey eyes. "Well, you are quite a young, not to mention single, mother of a very young infant. You also seem to be working quite a few hours at Wal-Mart as well. You need to put a lot of time to be working in this restaurant, and you don't seem to have enough."

The woman pushed a strand of her short pink hair behind her ear with a shaking hand. As her hands dropped back into her lap, they clenched into fists as rejection slowly sunk in.

"Sir, please, you don't understand; I need this job!"

"Ma'am, there are millions of people in the world who need jobs, but we can't just give them to everyone like spare change." He watched carefully as he noticed fear pour into the young woman's eyes. Sighing deeply, he took off his glasses before rubbing a hand through his thinning hair. He rested his elbows on the wood and laced his fingers together.

"Ms. Haruno, you realize that jobs in customer service cause more stress than you can imagine, do you not? And with you being a single mother living on such an apparently small welfare income, you do not need that kind of stress and your child does not deserve that. Do you have a nanny for your child? Or parents to watch him?"

"He has a baby-sitter, actually. Both of my parents died in a car accident when I was six." she replied with twiddling fingers.

"I'm very sorry. What I suggest then is to stop spending money for another person to watch your child for so many hours a day and stick with the one job. Your child needs his mother, and you need extra money."

When he finished, emotion hit Sakura like a ton of bricks. Her shoulders started to shake and tears rolled down her face. Suddenly, she felt a large hand rest on her shoulder.

"Ms. Haruno, I'm not a heartless man and you may not realize this, but I'm doing this for your benefit.

_No. Please. Not again._

"I'm sorry."

With a small nod and a quick thank you for your time, Sakura snatched her resume off of the desk, picked up her bag, and all but sprinted out of the office, through the restaurant doors, and out into the night.

The twenty minute drive home felt even longer with all hope for another chance for a job down the drain yet again, but it was still twenty minutes all the same. Her son wouldn't realize that it felt so much longer and harder to get home, that their lives were still so hard, or that his own mother was quickly losing faith that it would ever become easier.

_That thought can make me sleep easier at night_, she thought with a sad smile.

Pulling into the large parking garage, Sakura parked in her usual spot and locked the car behind her as she walked to the door to the building. After a short elevator ride three floors up, the young woman fished her keys out of her cluttered purse and stuck them in the lock before turning and pushing open the door.

"Hi, Ms. Haruno."

Sakura tossed her bag onto the small table by the door and nodded in greeting. "Hello, Moegi. How was Yukio?"

"Perfectly fine; feisty as always, but very good," she said with a smile while standing from the couch and turning of the television. Sakura laughed lightly and nodded knowingly.

"Well I'm glad that he didn't give you too much trouble," she said. "Is he asleep?"

"Not yet, just playing a little in the back room. He hasn't had a bath yet. I was actually about to go in and give him one."

"Oh, okay," Sakura said, digging around her purse for her wallet. "Thank you so much for your help again, Moegi."

Waving a hand dismissively and grinning widely, Moegi scoffed. "You are very welcome; it's no trouble at all. My family and I are here if you ever need anything."

Sakura ignored the concerned edge to her voice and handed the young teen two crisp tens and a five for her five hours of work. Moegi had insisted months ago on five dollars an hour instead of the common payment for baby-sitters of ten, and after much convincing, Sakura had finally agreed.

Thanking her again as Moegi left the apartment, Sakura walked into the back playroom and watched her eleven month son attempt to build a tower out of the large Mega-Blocks.

She let out a small breathy laugh at Yukio's pout as his weakly constructed tower collapsed. Hearing the noise, the young red-head turned, his pout turning into a bright and toothy grin when he noticed his mother standing in the doorway.

"Mama," Yukio shouted, scrambling to his tiny feet and toddled towards her. Sakura grinned and bent down with her arms spread out to take her little ball of sunshine in an embrace.

"Hey, Yu-Yu," she cooed gently. "How's my little man?"

Yukio replied with a happy sounding little garble, so she took that as a good thing.

"Hmm, Ms. Mo-Mo told me that you haven't had a bath yet, is that right?" she said, smirking.

After a long struggle to get the young boy into the bathroom and an even longer one to get him into the tub, Sakura finally got Yukio to settle down just enough to get him cleaned and dressed to go to sleep.

Two stories, a rocking, and a lullaby later, the infant finally began breathing softly in Sakura's lap. She gently held the child as she quietly stood up from the rocking chair and placed him in the jungle-print crib next to her. Smiling at the rise and fall of Yukio's tiny chest and stomach, Sakura leaned down and kissed his forehead before getting herself ready to end her day as well.

At around eleven o'clock, four hours after having put Yukio to bed, Sakura finally collapsed onto her queen-size bed. She had made herself a dinner of leftover spaghetti, paid a few of the many merciless bills scattered across her office desk, and taken a very quick shower, and Sakura smiled knowing she could finally relax.

It had been about two hours since Sakura had fallen asleep before a loud cry rang throughout the tiny apartment. Eyes opening, the young mother quickly identified where the shrill noise was coming from before quickly climbing out of her warm bed and walking across the hallway.

Yukio's face was damp with tears as the child cried loudly. His face was red and his eyes were scrunched in discontent. Picking up the baby, Sakura rubbed and patted his back soothingly while whispering softly in his ears, but failed to calm the screaming infant.

Sighing, she swiftly walked out of his room and into the tiny kitchen. After unable to find the only clean baby bottle in the darkness, she grabbed the second one from the sink and gave it a quick rinse, and looked for the mixture. Having found it, she noticed there wasn't very much left.

"But should enough to make about half a bottle," she mumbled through gritted teeth. She prepared the formula with one hand, the other arm holding the still crying Yukio.

When she had finally got the stubborn nipple onto the bottle, Sakura shifted Yukio in her arms and popped the end into his mouth. Yukio continued whimpering around the latex, but eventually sucked greedily and drank the milk inside. After a few minutes, the baby's dark brown eyes slowly started to close and his tiny mouth released the now empty bottle.

Sakura wiped the drops of milk from his cheeks and placed the bottle back into the sink. She walked back into the nursery and sat down in the rocking chair, rocking the barely awake infant. When he finally fell back to sleep, Sakura continued watching the sleeping child.

Yukio's face held not a care in the world. Tiny eyelashes gently caressed chubby cheeks and his tiny mouth was open slightly, soft breaths filling the room.

"I'm so sorry."

Sakura watched his tiny chest rise and fall with each breath and felt tears sting her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Yukio." She pulled the tiny human close, as if he would break with the lightest touches.

"You shouldn't have to live like this," she whispered. "You don't deserve to have a life this hard."

Sakura suddenly attempted to burn holes into the opposite wall when a thought surfaced in her mind.

"This is all your fault, Sai."

Sai Baikan had been Sakura's love for two years. She was a high school senior while he had a collage sophomore. He was rich, tall, and popular, and for some obscure reason, he decided to set his sights on shy and quiet Sakura. She hadn't been expecting it and she didn't know why he chose her, but he made her very happy. He would spend the day with her on the weekends and always buy her expensive things. All of these things made her believe they would be together forever after following him to collage, but led her to make the biggest mistake of her life, even if it led to the greatest joy she would ever have. Sai quickly broke up with her shortly after.

Once word got out of her pregnancy and the break up, everything came crashing down on her. Her reputation took a downward spiral and no one helped her through it, leaving her with barely any money. Sai had cut all ties with her or their son, only sending child support every few months; and very little at that.

"I'm so sorry, Yukio. I'm sorry you don't have your father. I'm sorry you don't have grandparents. I'm sorry I can't get you the things you want or even need very often. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She felt tears run down her cheeks and land onto Yukio's pajamas before soaking into the material.

Pulling the infant back so she could see his face, he still looked calm and peaceful. No worries, no regrets. Sakura looked up to the ceiling and smiled sadly.

"But things will change; I promise. We won't be here forever." She looked back at her life in her hands and brushed a hand over his soft hair and skin. "Someday we'll find our place in this world. This is all only temporary, Yu-Yu. I promise you this."

Sakura paused in her air-plane noises and moving the spoon around when her cell phone suddenly began ringing.

"I'll be right back, Yu-Yu." She placed the spoon back into the bowl of milk and Cheerios and walked to the living room.

Picking up the phone from the coffee table, she was more than a bit surprised to see Gaara Sabaku's name light up on the caller-ID.

Gaara and Sakura had been best friends growing up, a shocking revelation if you hadn't known them for years. Gaara was a child of very few words and of even fewer welcoming attributes. He was pale, intimidating, and with his light jade eyes, blood-red hair and dark circles around his eyes -caused by years of insomnia-; even quite frightening. But even with his anti-social nature, whenever he formed a close bond with someone, he rarely ever let it go. Sakura was simple and shy, but had immediately found the boy interesting instead of fearsome. It took some effort, but she had finally gotten close enough to him to call her his friend, and eventually best friend.

But as time grew on and they began their own lives, the two slowly grew apart from one another, along with most of their other friends. The only two who remained close had been Naruto and Sasuke, who had been together since eighth grade and only grew closer as the years went by. Sakura still kept up with them very often, but she hadn't seen either of them face-to-face since Sai had left, which had been about two years ago.

So, despite the confusion and slight hurt that this had been the first time he contacted her since high school graduation, she flipped open the phone and pressed it to her ear.

"Well, well, well; long time, no hear, Sabaku," she clipped teasingly.

"Sakura…"

The comfortable atmosphere of the phone-call immediately plummeted. Gaara always had a serious voice, but the only indication that she knew something was horribly wrong was that Gaara called her by her first name. He never called anyone by their first name.

"Gaara, what's wrong?"

There was a bit of silence on the other end before a soft sigh made it through the line. "Sakura; its Jiraya…"

_No..._

Jiraya Sanin was Naruto's great-uncle and godfather, but he had also lived next door to Sakura and her adoptive parents for as long as she could remember. He was old, boisterous, and perverted. He would always set up a lawn chair every Saturday morning just to watch women taking their morning jogs around the neighborhood, and he would always be doing one of two things; drooling like an idiot, or writing something in his notebook. She unfortunately found out when she was fourteen what exactly was written in that notebook.

Even so, Jiraya was more of a father to her than her adoptive father could ever hope to be. He was how she met Naruto and Sasuke, and later introduced him to Gaara. When they was younger, he would always pick the four of them up from school. He would take her out for dinners every Friday night, drive her wherever she needed to go, and always make time to play their daily game of chess in his living room. And why did she spend so much time with him, you ask? Because her adoptive parents were either too busy with work or too busy having fun at casinos to bother. But Jiraya was always just ten steps away, and would welcome her with open arms any day of the week.

And now...

"What happened?"

Another sigh. "His health is dropping drastically. He doesn't have much longer. He demanded that he see you..."

There was something unsaid at the end of that sentence, but Sakura was thankful that Gaara had left it that way. She didn't want to hear what she knew was at the end..._"... One last time..."_

She knew it was coming. It had been a long time coming. But she couldn't believe it was happening now. She just couldn't comprehend it. She wouldn't until she saw him with her own eyes.

So with a shaking hand, Sakura pressed then "end" button on her phone after saying goodbye to Gaara and stuffed it in her purse. Looking over at Yukio, she saw his eyes watching the scene from his high-chair with curiosity and wonder.

"Come on, Yukio," she whispered, voice shaking slightly. She could already feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but she blinked in an effort to hold them back. "We're going out for a little bit."

She picked up her son and walked out the door, locking it behind her.

* * *

**I know there may be some errors in the interview portion, but I did the best I could. So review and tell me what you think! :)**

**~TheGirlOfManyObsessions**


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